Joint sealing device for building wall panels



Sept. 14, 1965 E. c. RUMLEY ETAL 3,205,529

JOINT SEALING DEVICE FOR BUILDING WALL PANELS Filed Sept. 15. 1961 FIG. 3

34\ INVENTORS g 34 BY LLOYD H-WILLIAMS- 48 48 6W fiLg mi ATTORNEYS ELMORE C. RUMLEY.

United States Patent 3,205,629 JOINT SEALING DEVICE FQR E'UEIJDING WALL PANELS Elmore C. Rumley, 51 W. Montana Ava, Detroit, Mich,

and Lloyd H. Williams, 17923 Kinross Road, Birmingham, Misha Gladys M. Williams, adininistratrix of said Lloyd H. Williams, deceased Filed Sept. 15, 1961, Ser. No. 133,468 1 Claim. (Cl. 552-496) This invention relates to sealing devices and, in particular, to joint sealing devices for sealing the joints or gaps between the external wall panels of building structures.

At present, the outer walls or curtain walls of certain modern building structures have been formed by securing to the building framework large relatively thin panels or slabs of concrete, stone or other suitable material. Such panels, however, ordinarily possess variations in width due to unavoidable variations arising during manufacture. Furthermore, such panels also frequently either expand or shrink after they have been secured to the building structure, with the result that the joints between the vertical edge faces of the panels change in width after installation. Moreover, in certain modern building structures, where such panels are of considerable length, even as great as 35 feet, prior sealing devices installed between the vertical edge surfaces of such panels have required too much force to initially compress them during installation, yet have possessed too little expansibility to maintain adequate subsequent sealing action. Finally, where panels of such great length are placed edge to edge in this manner with prior sealing strips used in the joints between them, the concrete has enough spring to enable the upper and lower corners of adjacent panels to be brought almost into contact with one another while a considerable gap remains at the middle, because of the resistance to compression offered by such prior sealing strips, thereby creating an undesirable variable width of joint from end to end of the panels.

Accordingly, one object of the present invention is to provide a joint sealing device for external building wall panels which requires only a very light pressure to compress it initially during installation, thereby not only maintaining a more even width of joint between the panels that has heretofore been obtained, but also reducing the effort required of the workmen to shift such panels laterally during installation, as well as permitting expansion or contraction of the sealing device considerable distances to maintain the sealing action of the sealing device during subsequent life of the building, even though the widths of the joints or gaps between adjacent slabs changes widely subsequent to their installation.

Another object is to provide a joint sealing device of the foregoing character to be installed between the centrally-recessed vertical edge surfaces of adjacent building wall panels, the joint sealing device of the present invention having a hollow thickened main sealing portion or rib installed in the widened part of the joint lying between the bottom surfaces of the recesses and oppositely-extending thinner tubular lateral portions or fins secured to the main portion but seated in the narrower part of the joint lying between the outer portions of the facing edge surfaces.

Another object is to provide a joint sealing device of the foregoing character wherein the lateral portions of the sealing device extend close to the opposite outer and inner faces of the panels so as to leave only shallow recesses between the panels for filling with caulking material and thus reducing the cost of such material by reducing the amount of such material required.

Another object is to provide a joint sealing device of the foregoing character wherein the outer edge surfaces of the lateral portions of the sealing device are of convex configuration, thereby imparting a concave configuration to the caulking material applied thereto within the joint, and consequently facilitating the attenuation or thinning of the central portion of the caulking material as it stretches out laterally in response to the widening of the joint due to subsequent shrinkage of the panels, thereby maintaining a tightly sealed joint which resists the entrance of water or air.

Other objects and advantages of the invention will become apparent during the course of the following description of the accompanying drawing, wherein:

FIGURE 1 is a horizontal fragmentary cross-section through the edge portions of adjacent centrally-recessed building wall panels showing a sealing device of the present invention installed in the recess of one panel and the other panel about to be moved laterally into sealed engagement therewith;

FIGURE 2 is a view similar to FIGURE 1, but showing the panels in their final positions with the sealing device sealing the joint between their edge surfaces; and

FIGURE 3 is a perspective view of the sealing device shown in FIGURES 1 and 2.

Referring to the drawing in detail, FIGURE 1 shows the adjacent portions of a pair of external building wall panels, generally designated 10, having facing surfaces 12 including outer surface portions 14 and a central longitudinal recess or groove 18 having slightly inclined side walls 2@ and a bottom wall 22. In their installed positions (FIGURE 2), the edge surfaces 12 of the panels 10 are separated from one another by a joint or gap 24. The gap 24 has narrow outer portions 26 between the outer edge surfaces 14 and a widened central portion 28 between the bottom surfaces 22 of the facing recesses 18.

Installed in each joint or gap 24 between the adjacent edge surfaces 12 of each pair of panels 10 is a wall panel joint sealing device, generally designated 30, according to the present invention. The sealing device 30 is in the form of an elongated strip or extrusion containing a thickerred hollow main or central sealing portion or rib 32 adapted to fit into the central recesses 18 and thinner tubular laterally-extending auxiliary sealing portions or fins 34 secured to and preferably integral with the central or main sealing portion 32 and joined to the opposite side walls 36 of the latter at approximately the midportion thereof. The opposite side walls 36 of the fins 34 are preferably tapered outwardly away from one another toward their junctions 38 with the auxiliary sealing portions 34, whereas the remaining side walls 40 interconnect the side walls 36. The tapered portions 42 of the side walls 36 conform approximately in taper or inclination to the side wall surfaces 28 of the recesses 18 so as to fit snugly together (FIGURE 2). One of the side walls 40 has a longitudinal relief groove 43 of approximately V-shaped cross-section. The auxiliary sealing portions or fins 34 have widened convex approximately semi-cylindrical outer wall portions 44 and tapering or converging opposite side walls 46 and 48 joining one another at the junctions 38, hence are of approximately pear-shaped cross-section (FIGURES 1 and 3) and extend longitudinally from end to end of the sealing device 30. The main sealing portion 40 has a hollow cavity or passageway 50 of approximately square cross-section and the auxiliary sealing portions 34 have hollow cavities or passageways 52 of approximately pear-shaped cross-section.

The sealing device 30 is preferably formed by extrusion of an easily compressed resilient material requiring only a very light pressure for its compression herein generically termed elastomeric material and including resilient synthetic plastic and resilient synthetic rubber. For the purposes of the present invention, two such suitable materials have been found to be closed-cell vinyl plastic sponge (expanded vinyl plastic) or the expanded synthetic rubber widely known throughout the elastomer industry as closed-cell neoprene sponge or expanded neoprene, the word Neoprene being the well-known registered trademark for such material produced by E. 1. du' Pont de Nemours and Co. of Wilmington, Delaware.

In the installation of the sealing device 30 during the erection of the building structure, let it be assumed that the framework of the building structure has been erected and panels of molded or precast concrete or stone are being applied to theframework and secured thereto. Let

it be assumed, for example, that one of the panels 10 has been thus secured withits outer surfaces 12 disposed vertical. The workman then preferably slides the coating of any suitable cement or adhesive to the side and bottom walls and 22 of the recess or groove 18 in the panel 10 just installed. He then unwinds a suitable length of the sealing device from the coil in which such de vices are conveniently supplied, and presses the central portion 32' thereof snugly into the recess 18, whereupon the adhesive layer retains the sealing device 30 in engagement with the panel 10'with the hollow fins 34 extending laterally along the surface portions 14 of the facing edge surfaces 12. The relative positions of the parts are as shown in FIGURE 1.

Having thus secured the sealing device 30 to the installed panel 10, the workman now swings or slides the next adjacent panel ltlsidewise into position, with its intermediate position shown'in' FIGURE 1 and its'final position in FIGURE 2. As the second panel 10 is swung or'slid into position, its outer surface portions 14 'of the edge surfaces 12 engage and flatten out the side walls 46 and 48 of the tubular fins 34'from their distended positions of FIGURE 1 to their flattened positions of FIG- URE 2, while the recess or groove 18 of the second panel portion 26 of the joint 24 thinner in its midportion than at the locations where it engagesthe joint surface portions 14. As a result, if the panels 10 shrink or otherwise cause the joints 24 to widen after installation, the caulking compound stretches as the fins 34 by reason of their resilience expand from their flattened positions of FIG- URE 2 toward their expanded positions of FIGURE 1. maintaining a tight water and air seal in the joints 24 betweenthe panels 10. In this manner, a permanent seal low main sealing portion extending longitudinally along 10 moves into mating engagement with the central sealing device portion32, as shown in FIGURE 2. The workman now secures the second panel' 10 in position against the building framework and proceeds in the same manner to install subsequent panels'lO with their accompanying sealing devices 30. Because of the distinctive shape and hollow construction-of the sealing devices 10 and the easily-compressed resilient material from which they are made, as described above, very-little force is required to move the second panel 10 from its intermediate position of FIGURE 1 to its final position of FIGURE 2.

At any convenient time after'the panels 10 and their sealing devices 30 have been thus installed, a workman caulks the outer'or exposed portions of the joints 24 with any suitable one of the numerous caulkingcornpounds available on the open market'and knownto those skilled in the building construction art. Due to the fact that the ends or outer walls 44 0f the fins 34 are convexly rounded, the corresponding surfaces of the caulking compound engaging them become concave, thereby rendering the layer of caulking compound in the remaining or outer said body and adapted to fit into the grooves of the panel edge faces and a pair of elongated tubular auxiliary sealing portions of' approximately pear-shaped crosssection in their relaxed condition lying in a lateral plane passing through said main sealing portion secured at their smaller end to and extending divergently outward in opposite directions from said main sealing portion, said auxiliary sealing portions being adapted to fit into the joint outwardly of the grooves of the building panel, the maximum dimension of said main sealing portion transverse to said lateral plane being greater than the maximum'dimensions of said auxiliary sealing portions transverse to said lateral plane.

References Citedby the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 330,769 11/85 Bassell 20-69 2,228,052 1/41 Gardner 50-346 2,230,303 2/41 Leguillon 94-182 2,680,370 6/54 Spaight 50-346 2,856,766 10/58 Huntley 50-346 2,869,356 1/59 Kulhavy et al. 50-346 2,877,515 3/59 Haas 20-69 2,901,904 ,9/59 Wey 50-346 3,023,681 3/62 Worson 50-346 3,099,110 7/63 Spaight 50-346 3,108,813 10/63 Brown et al. 50-346 FOREIGN PATENTS 617,595 2/49 Great Britain.

432,855 3/48 Italy.

321,419 6/57 Switzerland.

OTHER REFERENCES Concrete Magazine, July, 1957, page 52.

HENRY C. SUTHERLAND, Primary Examiner.

WILLIAM I. MUSHAKE, JACOB L. NACKENOFF,

Examiners. 

